


Darling, I'm a Mess

by presidentlena



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Beach city seals, F/F, F/M, Garnet - Freeform, Human AU, Lapis - Freeform, Multi, Peridot - Freeform, Steven Universe - Freeform, amethyst - Freeform, funland - Freeform, im lapidot trash now rip, jasper - Freeform, jaspis - Freeform, lapidot - Freeform, pearl - Freeform, polygems - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2017-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-11 19:34:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 19,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7904929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/presidentlena/pseuds/presidentlena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The blue-haired girl was different from everyone else, Peridot decided.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Blue

Almost in boredom, Peridot easily timed her tapping of the 'B' button, in order to deflect Puppet Zelda's attack back at her, muttering and chuckling to herself about how easy this game was after playing it thirteen times. She hardly needed to put any effort into it at all.

Honestly, this was ideal living for the young woman; holed in the darkness of her apartment for a few days straight, playing Nintendo games, and having absolutely no interruptions—

Peridot nearly threw the controller at the small T.V. as her usually silent phone blasted one of Percy's songs from Camp Pining Hearts. "Ughhhh..." She got over her mini heart attack as she paused Twilight Princess, and used her feet to wiggle her phone over to her from the other side of the couch. "What?!" She bit nastily into the phone, only to hear a huffy sigh in response. "Nice to talk to you, too, Peridot." Pearl. The nerd could easily recognize that 'I'm-better-than-you' voice anywhere. "Anyway," Pearl continued, squawking loudly as Amethyst yelled straight into the phone. Peridot cringed as she held the phone far from her ear, and decided it'd be safer for the health of her eardrums if she put the phone on speaker.

"It'd be great if you could come and get Garnet, Amethyst, and I? Amethyst is drunk off her rear end," Peridot heard Amethyst tell Pearl to just 'cuss once in your damn life, woman'. "Garnet's pretty drunk, too... So, none of us can drive."

"Can't you call Rose?" Peridot suggested, mostly for herself rather than assistance of them, "Or someone else who is actually willing to give up her precious time?"

"As much as I'd love to, Rose isn't answering." Rose was probably with Greg, judging by the sourness in Pearl's voice. Peridot grumbled, "Fantastic."

Pearl sighed in response, "Look, Peridot, please come pick us up." And, when she didn't get and immediate response, Pearl decided bribery would work best on the stubborn girl. "If you just drive us home I'll buy you a video game or something. Please?"

This was taken into consideration. "I did lose my copy of Pokemon Pearl..." Peridot drawled to herself, ignoring Pearl's squawk of 'Pokemon what now'. "...Fine. Where the hell are you clods?" Relieved, Pearl texted her the address of some bar, "Thank you so much, Peri."

"Mhmm. Bye." She hung up and put the phone on vibrate so she wouldn't be scared out of her pants again.

As she turned the T.V. off and threw on her lime-green hoodie on, she glanced at the time. 2:46 A.M. Peridot groaned to herself. For a moment she considered just not showing up, but, she couldn't— while they were annoying, they were also some of her only friends. Fantastic. Damn you, feelings.

After a couple of tries, she finally dug her keys out of the space between the couch cushions (not giving a single shit about doing life correctly leads to utter mess), and headed out of her apartment.

Those three women definitely owed her.

~~~

Peridot turned down a shitty little dirt road, hearing the tiny pebbles and bits of gravel clinking against her small car. This road wasn't used much, so she figured she'd be fine if she rested her eyes for a moment; she yawned, rubbing her eyes with on hand. Calmly, she opened them again, only to see a car stopped in front of her, and a blue-haired woman waving, panicked, for her to stop. Startled, Peridot's foot slammed on the brake, and the force of the sudden stop caused her body to fling forward. The woman's head hit the steering wheel, and she cursed loudly. Seatbelt safety is good, kids.

Hissing, Peridot lifted a hand to her forehead and rubbed the sore spot there. Deciding she was going to live, (though, the woman who caused this shit, may just die tonight) Peridot flung her seatbelt off and swung the door open.

The blue-haired woman rushed over to her quickly, "Oh, damn it— you okay?" She tried to reach for Peridot's bruising head.

Peridot stepped back from her touch, and glared, "It's three A.M. and I nearly died, how do you think I'm doing?"

The care in the woman's eyes seemed to disappear at Peridot's cross behavior, and she folded her arms before shooting a glare of her own. "Maybe if you had been paying attention, you wouldn't have had your," she put on a sarcastic baby voice, waving her hands, "oh-so-tragic near death experience."

"What— the car sitting in the middle of a tiny, dark road is yours, not mine, just so you know!" Peridot helped back defensively, "Who the hell d'you think you are, blaming me for your own shit?!"

The woman didn't respond, and Peridot smirked. She won that round. Grunting, the woman pinched the bridge of her nose, and shook her head, "Whatever. Okay, please, just," she looked back at Peridot with those wide blue eyes, "help me? If I have to stay here any longer, I'm pretty sure I won't get as lucky with the next person to drive down here."

Peridot held her breath unknowingly for a moment, considering ditching the troubled blue-haired girl on the side of the road. Again, she couldn't, because that'd be just wrong. Her ideas weren't very kind tonight. Letting the breath out, finally feeling calmer, Peridot shrugged, "Fine. But," she narrowed her emerald eyes, "how exactly am I supposed to know that you're not some serial killer or trying to mug me or something?" She challenged.

"While I was tempted to slam your face into the dirt a minute ago, I'm sure you'll be fine." She said with a deadpan. "I'm Lapis Lazuli."

"Charming girl, aren't you?" Peridot snickered, holding her hand out, "Peridot Green."

Lapis took it, before letting out a snort as she looked Peridot up and down, "I guess that name explains your green glasses... And jacket... And the highlights in your hair."

"Green is superior to other colors." Peridot snapped. "And you're not one to talk, Lapis Lazuli. Blue hair, blue shoes, blue necklace." Lapis shrugged. "Moving on. What do you need exactly, Lazuli?"

"It's Lapis." The Hawaiian girl corrected, pulling her phone out, "My phone died, my car broke down. Can I use your phone to call my," she paused as if she didn't want to say the next word, "my girlfriend, to come and get me?" She said the word 'girlfriend' with such distaste and venom Peridot almost laughed. Instead, she nodded. Peridot went to her car and picked the phone up off the floor (it fell out of her pocket when she hit the brakes). The nerdy woman unlocked it and tossed it to Lapis, who caught it with ease. "Knock yourself out."

Lapis gave a little smile, "Thanks." She tapped out a number on the screen, then held the device to her ear.

"It's Lapis, Jasper." She said after a minute. Her girlfriend must've picked up.

Peridot sat on the hood of her car, rubbing her sore head, listening.

"...Calm down, would you?... My car broke down." Lapis held the phone as far as she could from her ear, and Peridot raised her eyebrow. Even she could hear the woman on the other end yell, and she was seven feet away from the phone. "Just come get me, for God's sake." Lapis snapped into it, "135th Stagecoach Dr." And with that, ended the call without warning, and gave the phone back to Peridot.

"Uhhh," Peridot was still a little concerned at the really loud yell, "You alright, Lapis?"

"Fine."

Though she'd never admit to such a thing, Peridot was intrigued by this woman. "...Want me to stay with you until your girlfriend gets here?" Peridot curses silently for offering to stay with this asshole of a girl. She didn't want to. Curiosity, she figured, that's what it was that made her offer such.

Lapis' eyes went wide. Even someone who knew Peridot for two minutes could see that she wasn't one the offer things like that often, especially not to total strangers. "You don't have to," Lapis assured, "She lives almost an hour away, it'll be a while."

"I don't mind. I'd rather spend an hour with you then turn on the news tomorrow just to see a very familiar girl with blue hair got killed or something." Peridot found herself grinning a bit as Lapis laughed at that, it was a nice sound. "Karma, you know."

"Thanks." Lapis sat down on the hood with Peridot, smacking her back playfully, "Let's just hope no one runs the two of us over."

Peridot tapped her chin, sarcastically thinking, "You know, Lapis, you're not that bad to be around when we're not screaming at each other."

"Same to you, Peridot. But, ah, for the record, you totally started it."

"I'll give you that." Peridot smiled as Lapis pumped her fist in the air for winning round two. Maybe this night wasn't so bad after all.

—

"You know," Peridot had taken notice of something, "I've never seen you before, and I was pretty sure I've seen everyone who lives in Beach City. It's a small place." Lapis shrugged, "I live, like, right on the border of Ocean Town." She explained, as she lay back on the hood of Peridot's car, folding her arms under her head for cushion, "I come to Beach City often for two reasons; one, I swim for the Beach City Seals, and two, it's a nice little town, you know?"

Raising an eyebrow, Peridot lied back with her, turning on her side as best as she could so she could face the blue-haired girl. "Why would you ever want to live in Ocean Town?" The blonde scoffed, rolling her eyes, "Didn't that place go to shit a few years ago?"

"That," Lapis clicked her tongue, "is an understatement. It's so weird." She grimaced, her lips pulled tight and eyes narrowed, and Peridot giggled at the expression. "Dude, the other day, I left my girlfriend's house, and some guy was in the driveway eating, like, week-old Chinese food from her trash can."

Peridot grinned, letting out a loud laugh at the story, "What the hell?"

Lapis deadpanned, "Stuff like that happens daily, Per."

"Gross."

Snorting, Lapis nodded her agreement, "Yeah." She paused, thinking for a moment, before tilting her head and eyeing Peridot's forehead, looking a little worried. "Uh, are you sure you're okay? Your head is really blue, I mean... It's as blue as my hair."

"Oh?" The Latina lifted her fingers to her head, and ghosted them over the bruise that was blossoming there. She winced a little bit; it was definitely very sore. "Its hurts a bit, but, yeah. I'm good, I'll live." The nerdy woman confirmed, making her new friend sigh in relief. "You're an odd one, Lapis Lazuli. You can go from trying to tear my head clean off to being all nice and caring within a span of twenty minutes, you dorky clod." She noted, a little smile given away by the corners of her lips, that Lapis could see slightly curving upwards.

"I'm worried about having to pay hospital bills or whatever for your brain damage, don't think I'm worried about you." Peridot wasn't entirely sure if Lapis was joking or not. Maybe somewhere in between. "Ooookkkaayyyy..."

Lapis laughed softly at her, and Peridot found she enjoyed the way Lapis' eyes and nose crinkled when she did that. The swimmer was about to say something, before they heard an engine, and her sentence stopped before it had begun, and her face fell into one of many emotions. Annoyance, anger, maybe.

They both slid off the car, and looked towards the headlights tearing down the road towards them. A massive red truck stopped as quickly as it had came. Peridot cringed as the tires shrieked at the force of the stop; it definitely made skid marks on the concrete.

And, damn, Peridot's jaw flat-out fell down to her feet; the woman who stepped out of the vehicle was freaking terrifying. She was literally nearly seven feet of pure muscle, with a massive mane of bleached blonde hair. Needless to say, this woman scared the living shit out of Peridot.

The woman—Jasper, Peridot recalled—stopped a few feet in front of the two. Jasper glanced down at Peridot, who squeaked and stepped back a few feet. Her gaze was cold, threatening. But that's all she did; she hardly had acknowledged Peridot's existence, before turning to the swimmer and growling in her raspy voice, "Let's go. I called a tow truck to get that." She motioned to Lapis' car with one of her claws.

Lapis breathed through her nose slowly, "See you 'round, Peridot."

Peridot merely lifted her hand in a small wave, a little too scared by Jasper to do much of anything else. Jasper just did not have a good vibe at all, and it didn't help that Peridot was quite easily terrified.

She barely caught Lapis mouthing the words 'thank you' through the windshield of the truck, before the vehicle was turned around and speeding back to where it came from.

Realizing she must've began holding her breath, Peridot sighed in relief that she wasn't murdered or punched in the face by that beast of a woman. "Damn." She spoke aloud, watching the red taillights zoom down the little road, getting dimmer and dimmer until they were lost in the darkness.

"Wait," She froze, one leg in her car. She felt like she had forgotten something...

The second it hit her, she yanked her phone out of her pocket with violent force, nearly yelling the curse words that sprang from her mouth. Peridot pressed the power button, and cringed, seeing countless missed calls and alarmed texts from Pearl. The nerd groaned in her own despair, climbing all the way into her car and preparing herself mentally for an earful of Pearl's screaming at her for being—she glanced at the time, 4:07—over an hour late. "Lapis, you distracting asshole..."

Prepare for absolute hell, she thought to herself.

~~~

Cautiously, the Latina pulled slowly into the bar that her three friends were at. She parked, and sent Pearl a quick text saying she was there. Not five minutes later, a furious Pearl, a visibly drunk Amethyst, and a stoic-as-always showed up at the entrance to the bar. Pearl literally stomped her way to Peridot's car, and threw the door open for her and her girlfriends, climbed in, and started mom-ing Peridot.

"Peridot! For goodness' sake—" the ballerina let out an exasperated groan, pushing Amethyst's head off her shoulder (Amethyst then lay her head on Garnet instead), "It's a twenty minute drive from your apartment to here! You are over an hour late!"

Peridot rolled her eyes.

"How could you possibly manage to be so irresponsible?! It's absolutely—"

"Okay," Peridot snapped, "Pearl, I'm incredibly sorry, but if you would just trust that something very important came up, that'd be nice." She didn't exactly know how saying 'I had the time of my life talking to some strange girl I met in the middle of the road and totally forgot you guys existed until her monster girlfriend came and snatched her away' would go across.

Pearl looked deeply offended, "Well—"

A hand came to lay on her shoulder, crossed over Amethyst's sleeping form. "That's enough about it, Pearl."

"But Garnet—!"

"No buts. I'm sure Peridot had a very good reason."

The nerd actually found herself laughing, hard, as Pearl huffed at Garnet, and Amethyst very briefly woke up, only to whisper "shut down by the G-squad", before falling back to sleep.

Her thoughts kept going back to the blue-haired girl, however.


	2. Funland

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peri and Amethyst work at Funland.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There'll be no lapis this chapter or the next y'all, the crystal gems are getting their screen time

"Amethyst, don't you dare." Peridot warned her friend, "I could care less if you get fired, but if I get sacked for your crap, I will literally stab you, you fucking clod."

Amethyst rolled her eyes, snorting. She took her hands away from the closed-down roller coaster she was planning on climbing just for the hell of it, and raised them above her head in sarcastic defeat. "'Kay, P-Dot. But," She grinned, "If you want more friends and have less people run screaming from you, maybe you shouldn't threaten to stab people." 

Grabbing Amethyst's arm and dragging her away from the ride, Peridot grumbled, "I usually don't have to threaten to stab someone."

"Unless it's some twelve year old on Call of Duty, you mean." 

"Sure, Amethyst." She replied irritatedly. Now, don't get Peridot wrong, she loved hanging out with Amethyst, but it was almost impossible for her to be in a good mood while working at Funland. Really, you'd think they'd let a fellow employee ride the damn rides, despite being too short for the lot of them.

"Duuude," Amethyst spoke, "lighten up, Peri. You clod." For that final sentence Amethyst had made her voice nasally and higher, mimicking Peridot. 

Normally, Peridot would've probably been annoyed at such, but admittedly, Amethyst was funny, even when it was her she was making fun of. The blonde girl chuckled a little bit, in a 'nyeh-heh-heh' sort-of laugh, and vaguely saw Amethyst grin at the fact she had gotten Peridot to laugh.

Walking back towards the game booth they were supposed to be working at in the first place, the two took care to duck the park owner, Mr. Smiley's, gaze as they passed him and an odd little boy named Onion, who had been apparently caught for stealing from one of the shops. "I like that kid," Amethyst snorted as they got out of eyesight and earshot of their boss. "He's weird, it's funny as heck, dude." She paused, thinking, "Didn't he get caught taking tickets from the games at Funland Arcade 'n usin' them to get super cool prizes? That's awesome, I respect that."

"How has he not been banned from the boardwalk by this point?" Peridot raised an eyebrow, glancing back at the blonde boy making his escape, then back to her friend, a question coming to her; "Didn't you date his mom at some point...?" 

"Vidalia, yeah." Amethyst confirmed, "But, yo, that was before I knew P and Garnet, ya know?" Shaking her head, she laughed, "Vid's, like, the coolest girl ever, though, Per."

Finally arriving at the booth (huzzah! They hadn't been caught!), Peridot nodded, not actually sure what to think about Vidalia, or Onion, considering the only people she really knew in Beach City were Amethyst, Garnet, Pearl, Steven, Greg Universe, and a couple of the teens. And, oh, with Steven on her mind, she decided to ask, "How's Steven doing?"

Amethyst laid back against the wall, opening her mouth in an 'o' shape. "You haven't seen him since his birthday, huh?" 

She shook her head.

"Jeez, man." She thought for a minute, before grinning at Peridot, "Us three, Steven, and his friend Connie are going to go play laser tag tonight, you in?" She offered, shrugging. 

Peridot thought for a moment. She didn't think she wanted to play 'laser tag' all that much, but... It would be nice to see Steven. The nerd had been stressed over tons of shit the past few weeks (her asshole mom, for instance, was the root of 90% of her issues; after Peridot had told her off soon after meeting Steven, she decided to just be worse), and Steven was always a good person to be around when your life is personal hell. So, she complied, "Okay."

Pumping her fists in the air in a dork-ily sarcastic manner, Amethyst whooped, before throwing her arm around Peridot's neck and nearly strangling her, "Yeahhh! She's actually gonna do something fun for once!" Peridot grumbled, as Amethyst was shouting and drawing unnecessary attention from two women and their son, who were staring in confusion at the two short girls; one nearly choking the literal life out of the other. Peridot's glare seemed to make the family decide it'd be best for their health if they stopped staring. Good, good.

"You're such an ass," Peridot whined as she pulled away from the tight grip, and ran her hand over her now messier-than-usual hair, trying to tame it in even the slightest. Chuckling, Amethyst shrugged, in neither confirmation or denial. "Whatever ya say, Per-Bear. So, you're in, yeah?"

"Don't call me that. And, I'm starting to regret my decision, but yes." Peridot drawled, but then snapped back and added quickly, "Please do not ever celebrate like that again. We're going to scare away all of Beach City, Ame."

Amethyst snorted, pushing her platinum-blonde hair away from her eyes, "'Kay, Per."

Their conversation was interrupted by a man and his daughter, wanting to play the game Peridot and Amethyst were assigned to. Amethyst took to them, taking their money and handing the little girl five rings. As she sat back and watched the rings fail to land around the rigged bottles, Peridot thought about maybe canceling hanging out with the five tonight, and instead go some other time for a different activity, but—

"We'll pick you up, 'kay?" 

Peridot nodded, shrugging. It might be fun.

She pulled out her phone and tapped away on the little screen (blocking Amethyst from seeing her Percy/Pierre lock screen; Amethyst would make fun of her from now until they were fifty), unlocking it and opening messages. She thought she may as well let Steven know she'd be joining them. She typed a quick message, something along the lines of 'ame invited me to come along tonight, see you then'. And the literal second she slid her phone back in her pocket it buzzed (curses!), alerting her Steven had already responded. Opening the text, she read it. 

'Oh my gosh peri!!!! I can't wait to see u aaa :0' along with a ton of emojis. 

The nerd found herself smiling at the message, Steven really was such a sweet kid. Yeah, she decided, she'd have fun that night.


	3. Competition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laser tag yo

Eagerly, Peridot began walking home, after saying a brief 'goodnight' to Mr. Smiley as she left the Funland entrance. She preferred to walk home, because Funland was only a short walk to her apartment, and, hey, it saved gas. Amethyst had gone home a couple hours early, so Peridot had spent her last couple hours of work chatting with Mr. Smiley and his friend (Peridot was willing to bet her special edition DVD of CPH that they were boyfriends), Mr. Frowney.

Beach City was fairly quiet, even though it was only seven P.M. The tourists were probably down at the beach watching a concert or something, and since most of the residents worked at the few food places available, they were probably cleaning up their respective restaurants. It was weirdly dull without the tourists buzzing around, but quite peaceful, save for the awkward dramatic mailman named Jamie who had tried to strike conversation at some point.

After fifteen minutes, give or take, Peridot reached her small apartment and crashed on the couch, even though she knew her friends would be coming to get her any minute now.

"Pffft," Peridot snorted to herself, looking at a picture of Pearl and Steven's cat, Lion, that featured Pearl with a disgusted face and Lion perched atop of her head. She had busied herself to texting with Steven as he, Connie, and his moms prepared themselves.

'Coming soon!!' The little boy had texted after a few minutes, and Peridot shut off her phone and threw her shoes back on. She headed out of her apartment building, and sat down on one of the silver benches near the road. In all honestly, Beach City was such a nice, quiet little town. Even at night, it had a warmth to it, and when she stood at the beach, she could smell the ocean and see water rippling where a fish had jumped out. It was... A calming area. Peridot moved here from Empire City for exactly that reason; here, it was peaceful, while in Empire City she could hear traffic and people pretty much every second of the day.

Unbeknownst to Peridot, she must've started to drift off sitting there, because the next thing she knew her eyes were opening to the sound of an old Supremo stopping in the road in front of her. 

"Peri!" Steven yelled as he rolled a window down, "Come on!" 

Lifting her hand in a short wave, Peridot gathered herself and walked over to the vehicle and got in on the opposite side of Steven. Amethyst was parked in the middle seat, Steven and Connie were sharing the seat on the driver's side of the car, Garnet was shotgun, and Pearl was in the driver's seat. 

They all gave their respective greetings, and Peridot sarcastically looked at Pearl as she buckled her seatbelt, "You all look a lot less crappy when you're sober."

"Ahem." Pearl turned to glare at the blonde woman icily, "Peridot." She warned, darting her eyes over to Steven and Connie as if somehow talking about the three women's nights out would destroy the children's childhood. She held up her hands in defeat, and Pearl turned, looking satisfied. The tall woman started up the car, and in a second, they were on the road. Amethyst snickered over their little 'conversation', if one could call it that. 

"Hi, Peridot." Peridot looked over at Connie, who was adjusting her pink glasses a little nervously. The girl was known to be a little shy in social situations here and there. "Hey. It's been a while." Peridot offered. Connie smiled up at her brightly, and Steven giggled at her because, in all honestly, the girl was quite adorable.

"How's school going?" Peridot questioned the two.

Steven lit up, "Ohhh my gosh! Connie got me reading this series, The Unfamiliar Familiar, to do this book report on and it's literally the best series ever!" He practically yelled about the topic, and Connie seemed to get excited over the mention of the series. "It's a really amazing series!" She added, "I love school, but I'm still really sad me and Steven are a grade apart. I never get to see him during the day."

Steven nodded in agreement solemnly, and Connie wiped away an imaginary tear as she patted the boy's shoulder comfortingly. Peridot chuckled, the two kids were perfect for each other, really. 

They spent the most of the ride chatting, and every once in a while Garnet would chime in, which almost surprised Peridot. The giant woman seemed to be in one of her more friendly moods. 

\--

The final round of their game.

Thus far, the score was going in Garnet's favor, with Peridot and Pearl close behind, and Amethyst, Steven and Connie not doing as well.

It was slightly discomforting, to be surrounded by the darkness and fog. But, of course, that's the point. You're not supposed to relax in a game like this, obviously. Peridot crouched behind a wall, just so that she could peer around the corner and see if anyone came by as an easy target. The way they were playing was that once you got hit once, you were out for the round. She took a moment to think of each of her opponents.

Amethyst was reckless, and knew nearly nothing of strategy, and would likely be walking around practically asking to be hit. But, then again, she could be a little competitive and it's always possible she could get a few lucky shots, even with her imperfect aim, in this last round. Amethyst often got lucky like that.

Pearl was the opposite; strategic, smart, she planned ahead. Her aim would be dead-on, and there was a very good chance she'd get Peridot before she could shoot her. The two were already neck-at-neck with scores.

Garnet was, well, Garnet; Quiet, and aside from Pearl, the biggest threat of them all. Peridot would have trouble winning against Garnet, for sure, who was already in the lead.

Steven and Connie, well, despite the rules they'd been working as a team ("If we're going to play, we're going to do it together!" Steven had shouted, yelling something about 'jam buds' as well). They and Amethyst were probably going to be the easiest to take out.

The Latina wiped her eyes roughly, the fog disorientating her vision to the point of irritation. And, shit, the second she opened them again, she could see the glowing of somebody's vest coming down the path. She scrambled to recollect herself and aim the laser gun at the target; a shoulder shot would be easier at the angle, but Peridot was a go big or go home kind of person, and you can bet she was going to try at nothing to hit the chest target. 

Once the person got closer, however, another came around the corner, catching up to the first one and raising their laser gun. Peridot could tell the first person was Amethyst now, and the second was Pearl. "Hell no," Peridot muttered under her breath, and straightened her aim. She celebrated silently as Amethyst's vest buzzed and she cursed loudly. Pearl, behind her, stopped in her tracks and tried to turn back. 

Peridot stood, and ran quietly as possibly to the place where the path Pearl took would have to lead to, and went down it.

She could see the glowing not too far away, and ducked behind a wall, leaned out, and...

Bzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Pearl stared, bewildered, down at her vest, before letting out a noise of frustration and Peridot half-yelled, "Eat it, clod!" To which Pearl glared in her general direction, huffing, and going to find Amethyst.

As she walked cautiously around, she noticed Steven and Connie both walking towards the entrance of the room. That meant Garnet had gotten them, which meant, it was just Peridot and Garnet left. Peridot gulped, that was the last person she wanted to go against right at the end.

Three minutes.

Three minutes of nothing since she saw Connie and Steven exiting.

She hadn't caught even a glimpse of Garnet; and it was so eerily quiet Peridot was losing some of her nerve. 

As she lurked around the maze of a room, she was beginning to loosen up from her tense state. It didn't feel like anything was going to happen anytime soon— A flash of movement came into the corner of her eye, and she spun around, lifting her laser gun and firing at random. "Are you serious?!" She wailed to herself, seeing that what she was looking at wasn't her enemy, but rather a mirror, her reflection staring back at her with a matching expression of annoyance.

Her heartbeat slowed once again, and she lowered her gun. This was just ridiculous. Garnet was never going to show up.

Bzzzzzzzzzz.

She jumped nearly out of her vest as it vibrated, and she whipped around to see Garnet grinning at her like a total asshole. 

"Garnet wins," The giant woman said as Peridot glared at her.


	4. Seriously?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, to anyone reading this, sorry for slow updates. I'd been planning on doing weekly updates, but some stuff has been going on and it's been hard for me to write. So, yeah, sorry about that, have some Lapis. 
> 
> (With the next update I might also have the already posted chapters with some editing, so if I do, I'll let you know if anything major changes.)

Funland was a decent job, honestly, it was. But it was also gave Peridot about ten headaches per day. The massive rides that touched the clouds, that held dozens of people, all screaming in delight. The sound of the rollercoasters zipping along their tracks, trailing those screams, that was absolutely grating to her. People were annoying as all hell. On that note, Peridot had to stop that Onion kid from doing god-knows-what, or Beach City's 'cool kids' from loitering in front of the entrance for no reason, or some other messed up kid being an idiot on one of the rides, pretty much every day. Okay, maybe not every day, it was every week for sure.

But in honesty she got paid pretty well for just sitting around, smelling the scent of funnel cake that drifted through the air, take a few saps money to play a rigged game, and maybe clean a table now and then. Plus, she got to hang out with Amethyst, so that was one thing that kept her from completely losing her sanity. 

Tonight was one of those nights where she had to stop some poor idiot with half a brain. 

"Amethyst, did you see that?" Amethyst wasn't working right now, but Peridot was. Amethyst, Steven, Garnet, and Pearl had just come to have a good time at Funland, a.k.a., Steven's second favorite place in existence (the first was the Big Donut).

Amethyst rolled her eyes, "See what, dude?" She asked, through a mouthful of candy. Peridot gestured to an old ride that was being shut down (too many, to pay it lightly, incidents on the old thing), "I thought I saw something go in there." 

Pearl yelled at Garnet to not let Steven eat too much sugar (that boy was crazy enough as it is) as they went off to find a ride, before turning to look at Peridot. "Oh, no one's going to go in there. It has police tape around it!" Pearl was convinced there was no one who would ever dare go past, gasp, police tape. "It's dark, you're probably just seeing things, Peridot." Peridot grumbled an insult under her breath. The tall woman was absolutely, undeniably the most irritating friend Peridot had. "We have to go check," Peridot whined, grabbing Amethyst's shirt and tugging at it, "Mr. Smiley will kill us if someone's back there."

Amethyst pushed her bleached hair out of her eyes and cleared her throat sarcastically, "Ahem. Correction; he will kill you. I'm on break, yo." Pearl nodded in agreement half-heartedly, since, after all, what Amethyst said was true. She couldn't be held responsible if she wasn't even working. "I seriously fucking hate all of you." Peridot said stoically, before standing up. "If I get fired I'm going to hate you for eternity." And with that, she started walking towards the old ride, ignoring Amethyst's laughter at Peridot's expense. 

The area was pretty dark, save for a couple lamp posts here and there. "If someone went in there, I highly suggest getting your ass out here!" Peridot yelled once she reached the tape. After a moment, Peridot sighed in irritation, "Of course." She ducked under the tape, cursing as she nearly tripped over an unseen rock and her shoe stuck in some mud, and she cautiously walked into the area. "I'm serious, get over here." She called, seeing a figure sitting on the ground below the coaster. The figure seemed to ignore her, which was starting to piss Peridot off even more. "Are you kidding me..." She was expecting to see that Lars kid or something, but, as she neared the person, her green eyes widened automatically as she noticed a specific feature she'd only seen once before. She recognized that poofy, messily styled blue hair. "Lapis Lazuli?" She asked albeit a little quietly, and mostly to herself rather than at the blue-haired girl. Lapis looked up, surprised, before recognizing Peridot and silently returning her gaze to the ground. "Go away, Green." 

"Love to. But," Peridot stood directly over the Hawaiin girl now. "Unfortunately I work here and I'm going to have to ask you to get your ass out of this area before my ass is sacked."

Lapis didn't respond.

"I could call security, you know."

"If you were going to, you already would've." Lapis challenged, finally looking at Peridot with her cold eyes. Peridot felt her face flame up, the glare Lapis was giving her was adding to her irritation. "...Okay, Lazuli. What the hell's wrong with you? All I'm asking is you go mope in an area that doesn't have a massive rollercoaster that could probably fall over any minute. Stop wasting my time and just go." Was her retort, with a glare that matched Lapis'.

Lapis, deciding to be a stubborn piece of shit, shifted and got into a comfortable position rather than leaving, and smiled with such salt Peridot thought she might just put her foot in the girl's face. "Is that really a way for an employee to talk to a park visitor? I wonder what your boss would say."

"I'm sure the cops will be just happy to have to spend their time dragging you out of the park."

"Do you have a stick up your ass all the time?"

"I'm this close to throwing you over the fence, I swear."

Lapis looked her up and down, then laughed, snorting. "You probably weigh thirty pounds less than me, 'n you clearly don't exercise. Good luck lifting me, let alone throwing me."

Peridot knew that was true. "My friend Garnet'll do it. Wouldn't be the first time she's thrown someone over a fence."

"What— why has she...?" Lapis stared at Peridot like she was an alien who just dropped out of space. "...Okay, never mind, don't want to know."

"Fantastic." Peridot said, crossing her arms, "Now that we've had such a lovely conversation, would you mind getting the hell out?"

Raising a hand to her mouth, the Hawaiian girl blew a loud, wet raspberry in response. 

"Seriously?"


	5. Distraction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here y'all go

Irritation and slight anger was beginning to cloud over any fear Peridot had of being fired as she stared down at the blue-haired girl who was staring right back. Lapis had a straight face, though Peridot could barely catch the look in her aquamarine eyes that gave away her amusement. "Look, I'm not bothering anyone, just get on your merry way and we'll be done here." 

That was incorrect. "You're bothering me!" Peridot stated, pointing at herself in an exaggerated manner. All she got in response was a one-shouldered shrug.

Taking a deep breath, Peridot gave in, and sat herself down right next to Lapis. Peridot noticed, now she was so close to the girl, that she looked rather tired. Or pained. Or both. Peridot couldn't quite analyze it. "Okay," she started, clapping her hands together, "Since you have decided to be a stubborn asshole, do tell, what's wrong?" 

Lapis looked at her lazily, "What makes you assume something's wrong? Pretty sure you've probably had to kick someone outta here before."

Peridot weighed that fact over as she adjusted her glasses quickly, "Sure. But usually it's some drunk teenager and we get 'em out pretty quick— Huh." She squinted at Lapis, "You're drunk, aren't you? Fantastic."

"No, I'm like this all the time." Lapis laughed dryly. "That's a good idea though, thanks." 

"Anything to make you leave?" Peridot said it hopefully, though she was shut down by Lapis snorting and shaking her head. "Honestly, Peridot?" Lapis said, knocking the Latina in the shoulder playfully (Peridot held up her hand, on instinct, defensively), "I would've left already if you weren't so much fun to piss off."

Lowering her defense-ready hand, Peridot's face went blank. "Are you kidding me?" 

"Nah." Lapis trailed, appearing to be thinking for a minute. "Okay, you work here, right? When do you get off?"

Peridot raised her eyebrow, but nonetheless answered. "Half an hour, just about. Why?"

"You're fun to mess with. Let's hang out when you're done, okay?" When Peridot didn't immediately answer, she added a bribe, "If you say yes, I'll leave this oh-so-dangerous rollercoaster, okay?"

Think, Peri, think. On one hand, she didn't exactly know this girl. On the other hand, she would get out of here? Okay. Sold. "Uh... Okay?" Peridot really wasn't sure how to respond.

Lapis had a hint of a smile, and she stood up, "Good." Peridot scrambled to stand, grabbing onto Lapis' arm to steady herself. She withdrew quickly, ignoring Lapis' chuckle. Following the girl, Peridot shook her head as Lapis spoke. "See, it wasn't that hard to get me out of here."

"You're a real ass, Lapis Lazuli."

—

The entire situation felt inexplainable. The girl with the blue haired waved in a sickeningly sweetly way to the blonde, making her way to a restroom after telling Peridot to meet her at the entrance once her shift was over and giving her her phone number. Peridot, then, made her way back to Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet and Steven, who had returned to the little group. She sat down. "Heya, Peri." Amethyst said for all of them, before chuckling. "You look funny." She pointed out, making fun of Peridot's scrunched up facial expression. "What'cha find?" 

"I don't even know." Technically, wasn't a lie. Peridot was thoroughly confused by Lapis Lazuli.

Steven poked at her arm, his dark eyebrows raised comically high, prodding her silently for more details.

Peridot sat silent, stumped, for a moment. "A while ago I met this girl at, like, 3 A.M., because her car broke down, I guess? And we hung out for a while, waiting for her girlfriend to show up, right? And I just went to see who went back there," she jerked her thumb over her shoulder, "And it happened to be her? And she was being a stubborn jerk and wouldn't leave? But then she goes," and she put on a deadpan voice, mocking Lapis', "You know, I would've left already, but you're fun to tick off' then asked if I wanted to hang out with her after I get done here and I said yes because she said she'd get out of there if I said yes and I'm still quite confused because I've talked to her like twice?" She said the entire thing like she wasn't sure it happened.

Due to all of that information being spoken quickly, the four were still trying to comprehend it, it seemed. "I agree with 'er. You are fun to annoy. I like her already." Amethyst offered once she caught up, and Pearl hit her lightly on the shoulder. 

Garnet spoke up, "So, you won't be leaving with us, Peridot?"

Peridot shook her head 'no'. 

Smiling lightly, Garnet stood, "You have fun with your mystery girl. We're gonna get goin' now, then." Peridot nodded. Steven practically wailed, jumping up, "Gaaarnett—!" 

"Come on, Steven." Pearl quieted him, "The sooner we get home, the sooner we can watch the new Lonely Blade movie Amethyst found." Steven flushed, agreeing with the offer, and turned, throwing a hug around Peridot, "See ya, Peri!" He said happily, and she patted his back awkwardly; she was never one for hugs, but she did enjoy Steven, so she managed.

She said bye to the rest of them, then wandered around the park aimlessly to kill time, searching for answers within herself.

Maybe she's a serial killer and this is her shtick? ...No, she'd have done that five minutes after we met. 

Maybe she and her girlfriend got into a fight? Maybe, but Lapis doesn't really seem angry.

She said she wasn't drunk. High, maybe. 

Maybe she just actually wants to hang out with me. Pfft.

Maybe the serial killer thing?

Somehow it did make the remaining 25 minutes pass, whoo-hoo.

Somehow, the night in Beach City seemed to have gotten even colder in the half hour. She did a few more things. Finally, straightening her glasses, Peridot lamely hurried to the Funland entrance. She pushed pass several families and teenagers on her way out, and got a couple shows of a certain finger, but she really didn't care. Peridot slowed, nearing the entrance, and caught sight of Lapis.

"Hey! Lazuli!" She half-yelled, and Lapis turned, calmly, though the look in her eyes showed she was startled by the girl. "You ready?" Lapis asked lazily, brushing her fingers through her bright, short hair. Peridot shrugged, fumbling with her green hoodie as she tried to pull it over her head. After a moment she succeeded, tugging the bright garment over her head, but causing her somewhat-tamed blonde hair to get staticky. "As ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Lapis rolled her eyes, and Peridot continued, choosing to ignore the action, "...What exactly do you have in mind, Lapis?"

The taller girl pursed her lips, "I didn't really think about it," she confessed ("Really?" Peridot muttered), "Eh. Come on, I just want to hang out. I don't actually care where."

Peridot kept up with Lapis, and as she herself was shuddering even under her hoodie, she questioned how on earth that girl could be wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Yeah, confirmed, this girl was insane.

Realizing she recognized the way they were going, Peridot spoke up,mbreaking the heavy silence that had surrounded them, "We're going to the lighthouse?" She questioned, and Lapis nodded, seemingly forgetting Peridot was walking slightly behind her and wasn't able to see such a motion. Peridot took a step forward so she was side-by-side with the Hawaiian girl. "Yeah. I like it up there," She stopped mid sentence, and lifted a hand to her mouth and laughed lightly, (Peridot's stomach felt funny seeing the charmingly adorable crinkles around her eyes and nose. She shook it off, dismissing it.) "Let's just hope that fry kid isn't up there, I've had to chase his ass out on multiple occasions. It is pretty funny, though." 

"Ronaldo?" The Latina asked, before cringing, "That guy is super weird. Have you seen his blog?" Lapis shook her head, but looked at Peridot, interested. "It's basically a hundred pages of 'hey guys look at this weird donut' and zoomed in pictures of my friend Steven's stomach. He's like, convinced Steven is pregnant." 

"What the frick?" Lapis nudged Peridot's shoulder, "And you say Ocean Town has weird people?"

Grinning, Peridot elbowed her lightly in the arm. "I guess Beach City's got its fair share of weirdos." She agreed.

They chit-chatted a bit more, going up the hill, and Peridot realized with embarrassment she was pretty much dying, out of breath, while Lapis could've probably ran another twelve miles uphill and been fantastic. She hid the fact she was completely out of breath by the time they reached the top and made their way to the lighthouse door.

Peridot tugged on it. Nothing. Then pushed. Nothing. She pulled away from the door, pouting, "It's locked, Lapis." And I just walked up that hill for nothing. She didn't say that part out loud. Lapis was looking at her with what looked like... Amusement. She was covering a little smile, and her eyebrow was quirked. Such made Peridot quiver in annoyance. "Obviously it's locked, it's the middle of the night." And with that, she walked around the little building and to an open window. She gestured to it like it should've been obvious. "After you." 

Peridot was somewhat impressed. She crawled through the small space with ease, after all, she was tiny herself. Lapis came close behind. 

"You know," Lapis mumbled, sliding down next to Peridot on the floor. "As stupid as it sounds, I've always thought the stars are brighter here than in Ocean Town." 

Although surprised that that was what Lapis had said, Peridot did actually understand the thought. "No, I get it. I grew up in Empire City, I usually couldn't see the stars at all. The lights were so bright, I couldn't tell the difference."

Lapis seemed interested, "I've only been there once. I can't stand it."

"It's loud, obnoxious, and tiring." 

"It looked like I was staring right inta a flashlight even when I closed my eyes. How'd you stand living there so long? I would have gone nuts." She was right. Being in that city was basically hell. Maybe it'd be fine for someone more outgoing and crazy. But someone like Peridot? Never. She shook her head slowly, dully. "Honestly I never thought I'd leave. My mother was overbearing."

Lapis' eyes showed she wanted more detail, but Peridot refused. The story of Yellow Diamond wasn't one she enjoyed telling. "I haven't even known you a full twenty four hours, combining the time we have spent together. I don't exactly spill my family issues to strangers. You have to at least be a level 5 friend." She was only half-joking.

"Really? What am I then?" 

"Level .5."

"I'm not even level 1?" In sarcasm, Lapis slowly shook her head sadly, and mocked a mother's voice, "Harsh. I'm disappointed, Peridot Green."

Lapis was pretty entertaining. Peridot would admit that to herself. "Sure. Okay, how about you spill something?" Lapis gave her a look that clearly said 'depends'. "Why did you want to hang out with me?" 

The way she shifted then caused her to be in the shadows, the dim light from the small window only shining on her legs now. The rest of the swimmer looked pitch black. "You won't tell about your mommy, I don't see why I should explain myself to you." Peridot grumbled and she laughed, "Calm down, 'kay? Like I told you; you're fun. Unlike some people I know."

Unlike some people she knows. "Cryptic much?" 

The white of the swimmer's grin could barely be made out within the shadow. "Have to keep some of my secrets, don't I?" She teased. "I—" Her phone dinged, and she pulled it out to stare at the little screen. The case was silver, and reflective, like a mirror. In the middle was a rather intricate and beautiful design of a teardrop shaped, blue gem. Peridot found it oddly captivating. "Well, I ought ta get going before my house gets burned down." Lapis said after reading the text she'd been sent, and stood up. "...You leave the stove on?" Peridot gave a half-assed guess, standing up as well.

"Nah. Like I said, secrets. By the way, forgive me."

"What d—" The short girl's sentence was cut short, Lapis grabbing the back of her head roughly and smashing their lips together. Peridot cringed when their teeth clacked together at the impact. It was over as quickly as it had started, Lapis pulled back and wiped off her smudged lipstick. "Sorry, I needed that." She stuck her tongue out, "Thanks for distracting me, Peri. See ya." And with that, she dove out the window and ran, leaving behind a thoroughly shocked Peridot.

"What the shit, Lapis." She said out loud to the dark room.


	6. Impatient

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My life tbh

Peridot could help herself, she had to text the girl.

What the hell was that about? She sent, and thought a moment, before sending another that simply read, This is Peridot.

She waited a moment, for a response, but shrugged and set down her phone upon not receiving one immediately. 

That was absolutely ridiculous. Lapis was a clod, Peridot thought to herself countless times since that little scene. Really, though, Peridot could figure out why she was so focused one that one little thing that didn't even last a full thirty seconds. Even though she had a higher IQ than a few of her friends combined, she couldn't piece together why her mind was set on thinking about that. It was nothing important. Lapis probably was drunk or high, or buzzed, at least. Or something. Maybe the swimmer was just stupid, or maybe just impulsive. But, whatever, it's not like Peridot really cared, hah, no, of course not. 

Pulling her nightclothes (to keep it blunt, an old, stained baseball shirt and boxers. How attractive.) on and replacing her clothes from that day, Peridot's eyes continued to flicker back to her phone, even though she was perfectly aware the phone would give an annoying little 'ding' when she got a notification. Staring at the damned thing wouldn't help at all. 

It was beginning to bother Peridot. She was debating internally wether she should call or text Garnet or not. That woman was an expert on people. 

But, no, she couldn't. Garnet was likely asleep by this hour and while she wasn't the type to be angry or agitated with Peridot for waking her, Peridot never did like to disrespect the woman in any way whatsoever. 

Ah, well.

Peridot needed some sort of distraction from the blue haired girl. She made herself ramen. She shoved 'The Dark Knight' in her X-Box and watched it. Frankly, when it became clear that not even Heath Ledger could distract her from that damned swimmer, Peridot realized she was all in all screwed. Very screwed.

"Answer, God dammit," Peridot muttered under her breath, to the ceiling, as if Lapis Lazuli could somehow actually miraculously hear the words from wherever the hell she was. "How hard is it to text? Why do people even have phones if no one answers them?" She eyed her poster of Percy, "Does it even make any sense?" 

Percy's picture did not respond.

Peridot took this as an agreement. "Yes, exactly." She paused, blinking. "I am talking to a poster. This has been a low point in my life." The woman raised an eyebrow at Percy. "You're lucky I'm trash for you, otherwise you'd be outta here the second I started speaking to you. Keep that in mind, buddy." Silence. "You're a really bad conversationalist, Percy."

She tried sleeping. She lied down, threw a blanket over herself, and closed her eyes. And waited. And waited. And... Nope. That was not going to work. The girl never was much of a sleeper. More of a 'stay-up-all-night-every-night-and-drown-in-coffee' kind of girl. 

Pulling out her phone and logging into a CPH website, she spammed a Percy/Paulette shipper with the Bee Movie script. Yes, she was that desperate to take her mind off of Lapis. 

"You know, Percy," she said, again talking to a goddamn poster, "One time Amethyst burnt herself while trying to melt an Oreo in the microwave. It melted the bowl and she burnt her entire hand. Why am I friends with these dumbasses?" She paused, rethinking her choices. "Then again, why are they friends with the girl who is talking to her poster in the middle of the night?" 

Ding.

Peridot's eyes shot wide open, as she darted for her phone and looked at the screen. Lapis Lazuli, it read. "Oh, thank god," She practically exclaimed, "Percy's fucking horrid at conversation." She opened up the messages app and read it. 

I told u. I needed that. Good way to get ur mind off stuff u know.

Peridot typed back, That's not much of an explanation.

I haven't even known u a full 24 hrs I'm not gonna spill all my secrets to u.

Are you actually quoting me from earlier, Lazuli?

Guilty as charged. Maybe someday, Green... Gotta be at least a level 5 pal. Night night. 

Peridot typed a brief good night, before setting down her phone and staring at the ceiling. That girl was something else.


	7. Girlfriend

"Peri has a girlfriend."

Wait, what? Peridot narrowed eyes shot up from her phone screen and at Amethyst, who had apparently been saying such to Steven. "Excuse me?" She questioned in her nasally voice. Amethyst switched her gaze from Steven to Peridot, and a grin lit up her face, her deep blue eyes holding a glint of humor. Before Amethyst could respond Steven spoke up, "Aww! Who is it Peri?" His eyes held stars. 

She stiffened defensively. "Last I checked, no one. What the hell're you talking about?"

Amethyst pointed at her phone clutched tightly in her hands, chuckling to herself. "That girl ya left with when we were at Funland that night. That's who you're texting, right?" 

Well. That was true, indeed. "Yes?" 

"I don't think you've put down your phone once since then, babe." Amethyst said, and Steven, who appeared to be thinking about this, then squealed, "Oh my gosh! What's her name? You never said. Is she pretty? What's she like? Does she like Crying Breakfast Friends?" Peridot blinked in what must've been concern for the young boy's enthusiasm, and shook her head defensively, "First, you are the only person ever to like Crying Breakfast Friends. Second, I am not in a relationship with that woman. Thirdly, I have only met her twice, and pursuing a relationship based on text messages only would be odd and ridiculous. Fourthly, She has a girlfriend. Finally, I am not interested, at all." As she listed these things she raised her fingers to show the number of reasons. "And, to answer your first question, her name is Lapis."

A laugh escaped Amethyst. This concerned Peridot. "How about his second question? You got the hots for 'er or what?"

Furrowing her eyebrows, Peridot wanted to punch Amethyst as she felt her face heating up at the discussion of her (rather sad) love life. "She is attractive, generally and factually speaking." Such was true. No one could deny that Lapis Lazuli was, at the least, pretty. Some things are just the simple truth.

Steven was practically glowing, still. Clearly he was unconvinced that Lapis Lazuli was not Peridot's girlfriend. "Do you have a picture of her?" 

"I... Yes?" Peridot was pretty sure Steven was shaking the entire table because of his excitement.

"Show us, pleaaase!" Steven begged, tugging on her arm and nodding to her phone.

Peridot hated her friends. A lot. Why was she friends with them anyway? "Fine." She tapped roughly on her phone screen like this was the last thing on this miserable planet she wanted to be doing and looked for a picture of Lapis that the girl herself had sent. The picture was a selfie; Lapis had her middle finger up and her facial expression was a deadpan. She had sent such as a response to Peridot after Peridot had insulted one of her favorite Camp Pining Hearts characters (Peridot finally had a CPH buddy, yay!!!). The picture was quickly zoomed in by Peridot, to cover the middle finger, before she handed the phone to Steven. She would really rather not get an angry phone call from Pearl later about letting Steven's oh-so incredibly innocent eyes see such a horrid, wretched thing. Scar the poor kid, it would... The thought itself made Peridot's mouth quirk into an annoyed expression.

A whistle escaped Amethyst's lips in a teasing way as she, too, stared at the picture. "Good going, Peri. Didn't think you could land someone like that. Didn't know you had it in you." Steven's reaction was much nicer than the purple-haired girl's (as expected) and he kind of giggled as he told her, "You and her would look so cute with each other! She really likes blue," he took note of, "And you really like green! I think those colors go good together, you know? It's, like, really nice? Connie says that is called a— athe— something."

"It's aesthetic, Steven." Snatching her phone back and ignoring Steven's amazed 'oh yeah' she did not care about, Peridot folded her arms defensively at the conversation topic. "First, no, Amethyst. I did not 'land' her. We are not girlfriends, we hardly are even friends. Second, she looks like she's either going to die or kill someone 24/7."

"Oh, please." Amethyst snorted. "That's what you look like, too." She raised a hand as Peridot opened her mouth to protest. "Babe, come on; the bags under your eyes have bags."

"That's just not—"

Steven raised his hand like he was in school and knew the answer. "And one time you poured a Mountain Dew and a Redbull into your coffee and drank the whole thing! Then you looked like you were going to pass out later. It was pretty funny." He said his support to Amethyst's statement, before lowering his hand and smiling genuinely nicely at her. It was irritating. That boy was too damn nice. It wasn't possible for someone to be such a sweetheart as Steven.

"I'm done with you both. I came here to have a good time, thanks." Peridot said, instinctively lifting her fingers under her eyes to inspect for bags after hearing Amethyst's words. "Are you honestly feeling so attacked right now?" Asked Amethyst. Peridot just raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"I'm the meme queen. Steven gets me, Per-Bear." The two high-fived at this. Peridot wanted to die. "Do you two ever stop?" 

"No." Said Amethyst simply.

The phone buzzed in her hand, and she lifted the screen up to see quicker than the Flash. None other than Lapis Lazuli. 

Can I come over?

Peridot did a double-take. Lapis wanted to hang out with her? At her apartment? Not that it excited her or anything. No. She was chill. But Lapis wanted to come over. She hadn't personally seen or spoken to Lapis since that one night, and if she was being honest, she hadn't really stopped thinking about it. Such was annoying. 

But also...

Lapis wanted to hang out at her apartment.

Yeah, is what she sent back, followed by 'I can pick you up if you want'. 

"It's the girlfriend, Steven." Came Amethyst's voice, sounding as if she were teaching him some important life lesson. 

Peridot paid her no attention.


	8. Worrying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis comes over  
> They're gay  
> Peridot's worried about Lapis

Lapis: Don't, just give me your address.

That's how Lapis responded to Peridot's offer to pick her up from her (Jasper's?) house. Peridot sent her address. Peridot didn't mind Lapis denied her offer, really. Either way, she'd still be having Lapis-freaking-Lazuli at her apartment, hanging out with her. The more she thought about it, this way actually worked in her favor. It gave her time to, you know,make her apartment seem like a home and not a garbage dump.

Peridot rushed home, she was practically running, and Peridot did not run. Ever. 

She all but calmly unlocked her apartment door and went in, scrambling to clean up before Lapis arrived. The drive from Ocean Town to here wasn't a long one. 

The tons and tons of video games were stacked neatly next to the T.V. now, rather than being strewn all across the couch and floor as they were. Peridot frantically grabbed every shipping chart of Camp Pining Hearts she had taped to the walls for her theory-making sessions and (neatly) shoved them into one of her drawers. The empty Mountain Dew cans lying about were picked up and disposed of. She even vacuumed the carpeting.

Once done, Peridot crashed onto her couch and stared at the room, taking in how nerdy it made her look. With her posters and video games and everything. She probably seemed like a little kid to most people.

"Holy shit I'm a mess." Peridot said, aloud, to herself. Just after this, a knock sounded and she nearly fell off the couch. Instead, she stood, and adjusted her glasses and hair as she basically tripped her way to the door. When she tugged on the door knob she was pretty sure she was close to ripping it off of the door, but it opened, revealing the unique, hardly combed blue hair that belonged to Lapis. 

The Hawaiian girl shrugged, "Yo." 

"Hi—! Hey." Peridot mentally shoved her head through a wall. She was a certified dumbass. "Come in," She said, stepping to the side and allowed Lapis into her mess of a home. Doing just that, Lapis looked around with a deadpan expression, causing Peridot to internally die because shit, she hates me doesn't she and the like were going through her mind. Fantastic. "Nice place," Lapis said.

"Really?"

"Yeah, sure."

Positively glowing at the words, even though Lapis didn't really seem to find it a huge deal, Peridot grinned and grabbed Lapis' arm to keep her attention. "I'm glad you like it! I thought I was going to make you run away or something!" 

This got Lapis to chuckle. Catching Lapis's lovely blue eyes glancing at Peridot's hands on her bicep, Peridot turned red, let go and chuckled apologetically. 

Lapis looked like she were going to say something to rebut Peridot's decision to remove the contact, but changed direction and instead said, "Can I turn the T.V. on?" 

Blinking, Peridot thought for a second. "I don't have T.V. channels or anything but I have a ton of DVDs if you want to find one." She pointed to a shelf.

"How about Camp Pining Hearts?" Lapis smiled, as she walked over to where Peridot had pointed. 'A ton' was an understatement. There were probably a couple hundred DVDs on the wooden shelf. "Jesus Christ," The swimmer laughed at the mound of DVDs as she began to look through the lot of them. To the Camp Pining Hearts question, Peridot lit up even more, if such was possible, and ran over to join Lapis, "I have every season!" 

At this, Lapis stopped shuffling through the shows and movies. "You're kidding me," Genuinely, she looked as if Peridot were telling her aliens abducted her, not that she owned a T.V. show series. "You are a liar, Peridot Green. They didn't even put the last season on DVD, you li'l shit."

Ignoring the 'li'l shit' comment, the Latina raised a finger and waved it. "I'm serious." With this she dug through the mass of cases and pulled out a case with Percy, Pierre, and Paulette on it that had the Camp Pining Hearts logo and the season number on it. Lapis snatched it from her and evaluated it. 

"You're messing with me, this does not exist." 

"You wanna bet, Lazuli? C'mere." After leading Lapis to the couch, Lapis sat, Peridot placed the DVD in her Xbox, turned both the Xbox and T.V. on, then, finally, sat next to Lapis and grabbed the remote. "It's legitimate. Has behind-the-scenes stuff and interviews with the actors and everything." Clearly, Lapis was still unconvinced. Once it loaded up and came on, Lapis spoke again, "No. Fucking. Way. How did you even get this?" 

Shrugging, Peridot gave Lapis the remote to let her do what ever she pleased. "I waste so much money on things like this, it's not even funny. Also, didn't take you to be such a nerd, Lap."

"I blame you. I wasn't this nerdy until I met you, asshole." Lapis turned on an episode. "Now I'm like, reading fanfiction all night, every night. Also, Percy is such a little crybaby. Just saying." 

Peridot scoffed, "Tell me about it. And he's way too dense, can you believe he thinks he likes Paulette?" Lapis laughed, sarcastically, "Percy and Pierre for life, man." 

For a while they watched the episodes of Camp Pining Hearts in silence save for either of them making a comment every once in a while. Lapis ended up pulling her legs on the couch and shifting so she was using Peridot's lap as a pillow, and Peridot was sure her heart quickened. She felt so stupid and happy around Lapis, it was gross. Even though the two mostly had a texting relationship, Peridot still, against her own will, was aware she had a teeny crush on the girl. A small one. Tiny. Maybe just a friend crush. But, admittedly, she wanted to cuddle Lapis to death right about now, although that was hardly acceptable. 

And... Another thing ate at her mind. "Lapis, why'd you do that?" 

Frowning, Lapis looked up at her friend, still using her lap as a pillow. "Do what?"

Tapping her fingers on the armrest of the couch, Peridot adjusted her glasses with her other hand as she cleared her throat. "Kiss me at the lighthouse, then run off, and never say why." Peridot explained, watching Lapis's unbearably stoic expression like she were a science experiment. "I mean, it just doesn't make a lot of sense. And— don't go trying to pull our 'you have to be a level five friend' joke, because frankly we've known each other for a while and we've been binge-watching a Canadian drama with you laying on me. I'm pretty sure we're friends now." Or, at least, Peridot hoped to any god there was that they were friends. She really liked Lapis. Generally speaking, that is. Yeah. 

"We are friends." Lapis confirmed, and Peridot basically melted. Damn her gay soul. After a moment of apparent consideration, Lapis spoke, "Put simply, I was really pissed off at Jasper because we were fighting as always," her girlfriend, Peridot remembered a little sadly, "I was stressed and shit, and then you came along and... You're cute as hell, so... Hell. And Jasper sleeps with other bitches all the time, so fuck, if I wanna kiss a very cute nerd I'm gonna fucking do it." Laughing dryly, Lapis added, "Sorry for kissing you, and double sorry for that spiel."

"You think I'm cute?" Peridot raised an eyebrow. 

Lapis snorted, "I literally just said that two times, and said I want to kiss you. Don't get full of yourself, Peri, 'kay?" Well, this girl was very blunt. Almost as much as Garnet.

As much as Peridot felt like going total fangirl-mode over Lapis saying she was cute and that she wants to kiss her, a different topic out weighed that, and it gave Peridot some anxiety. "Lapis? Your relationship with Jasper doesn't sound very, ah," Peridot thought for a second, "Healthy."

"We're fine."

"Uh— I mean, I only met her that one time but she seemed really scary, and— and you just said you're always fighting and she cheats on you a lot and— well, that doesn't seem..." 

"We're fine." Lapis stated again, voice calm, though it held enough bite in the tone to warn Peridot she was going to get her ass kicked if she kept talking about it. Peridot swallowed her words, and Lapis, content, shifted so she was looking at the T.V. again. 

Peridot was kind of worried. Jasper and Lapis' really, really did not seem to have a good relationship and eventually she found herself questioning what exactly their fights were like and if they ever escalated, and just... 

After a while of watching Camp Pining Hearts and worrying over Lapis, Lapis fell asleep, still laying on Peridot, and as she watched the swimmer's gentle features, listened to the gentle snoring, Peridot realized how infatuated she really was with Lapis.


	9. Relationships

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yellow Diamond is stupid  
> Jasper is stupid  
> Everyone is stupid   
> Pretty much

It was getting late. Lapis had been napping a few hours and now it was almost midnight. Peridot herself was almost asleep by the time Lapis woke up. Her sea-green eyes were closed, and she was drifting off, when—

"Hey." The Hawaiian girl sounded sleepy, and her voice was a little quiet, but nonetheless it immediately stopped Peridot from falling asleep. A tad irritated, Peridot rubbed her eyes under her glasses as she answered, "What?" Lapis sat up from her laying position on Peridot's lap, and stretched. After a second, Peridot noticed she was staring at Lapis and she looked instead at her hands now folded on her lap. Then, Lapis plopped back into the couch again and, this time, rested her head on Peridot's shoulder, her blue hair brushing Peridot's chin.

Peridot totally wasn't blushing, bad.

Continuing what she was going to say, Lapis sounded like she was going to yawn the entire sentence, "I told you shit, you wanna spill about your mom? Yeah, I haven't forgotten about that." 

"You hardly explained anything, then refused to discuss..." Lapis' body stiffened like she were going to jump up and bolt if Peridot kept talking. So, Peridot snapped her mouth shut for a second, before changing the sentence to, "I don't really like talking about her." 

Humming in dissatisfaction, Lapis tapped her fingers in rhythm on Peridot's thigh, "Just give me some stuff, okay? Like... What's her name?"

Shrugging with one shoulder, Peridot decided to answer, "Yellow Diamond." 

"She's named 'Yellow'?" Lapis laughed a little, and Peridot found herself smiling again at the sound. It made her oddly happy. "She has a sister named 'Blue' and one named 'White', too." This caused Lapis to snort, and yeah, Peridot wanted to smash their faces together because of how freaking adorable Lapis was. "No way, Peri... Why is her last name 'Diamond', not, y'know, Green?" 

In a deadpanned tone Peridot said, "Would you want your name to be Yellow Green?" 

"...That's fair."

"She changed her last name to Diamond. She kept mine Green." She added. 

Lapis tugged on Peridot's pant leg like she needed to keep herself occupied in order to stay awake, "Do you like her?" This made Peridot go silent. Of course, she should love her mother. But, frankly, love and like were two different things. You can definitely love someone but not like them. It was like... Having a sibling. "I suppose... I don't like her."

"So... Did something happen between y'all?" Damn, Lapis was nosy.

"Well," Peridot started, searching for words, "she's very... Controlling, I guess, and... She basically planned my entire life for me. I never really thought anything of it, but it really did suck. She planned what classes I took, what extracurriculars I did, who I could associate with, what I could do, when I could do it, what I wore, stuff like that. I don't think I ever actually made a decision for myself. And... She's the kind of parent who thinks arranged marriages are just great, too."

"Oh my god, did she try and set you up with some dude?" 

Peridot nodded in annoyance. "Yeah, it was stupid. I tried to explain to her that I didn't like the guy, so she started talking up a bunch of boys she thought were satisfactory for me to marry, like that was even giving me freedom in the matter, and I was getting pretty upset, and I blurted out that I'm a lesbian, and she kinda..."

Lapis finished, "Lost her shit?" 

That was about right. "Yeah. She legally disowned me, ha. My aunt, Blue, loaned me some money... So I moved here, and I got a job at the Big Donut, and then Funland, and... Yep. That's the story of how I became a, quote, traitor to the family, unquote. I've tried calling my mother, but she apparently changed her number, and her secretary won't forward my calls to her." 

There was a moment of silence. Then, Peridot squeaked as Lapis intertwined their fingers. "Your mom's a massive dick." Lapis muttered into Peridot's shoulder, giving her smaller hand a gentle squeeze. "You're telling me," Peridot gave a dry laugh, watching their hands together. They fit together quite nicely. "For the record, those guys were probably total trash, I bet Yellow has no taste." This got Peridot to really laugh, and she felt Lapis smile against her shoulder. 

Lapis was such a sweetheart when she wanted to be, Peridot decided, and holy shit it was cute and Peridot really adored her. Their hands were still together and Lapis was still leaning against Peridot, when Peridot spoke up again, hoping she wouldn't regret it, "Will you please talk to me about Jasper?" When Lapis didn't immediately answer, Peridot started to regret it, but then Lapis did answer and Peridot unintentionally let out a sigh of relief. "What do you want to know?"

This was a good start, at least. "Um... How long have you and her been in a relationship?" Peridot expected it to only have been a few months, maybe a year. "Six years," Lapis muttered and Peridot was surprised, her eyes going as wide as they possibly could. "O-Okay, uh... Does she ever scare you?" 

"No, not usually." Sounding bitter, Lapis continued, "At this point I think we're both numb to each other. She..." Lapis trailed, and Peridot squeezed her hand to urge her, "I don't know, we both were pretty chill at the start of the relationship, we fought a lot verbally, sure, but, eh, one day she hit me and," she shrugged. "We've both done things to each other. We've fought, and hit, and thrown things, and cheated, and lied."

Peridot really didn't like how this was going. "Have either of you tried to end things?"

"I think one time. We got back together and everything was okay again for a while."

"Do... You love her?" 

This seemed to stump Lapis. "I— Yeah."

Peridot went silent, processing this information, and worrying a lot about Lapis. Then, Lapis broke the silence again and said, "You're a lot more nicer to be around than she is, though." 

—

"And you've tried to convince her that she needs to stop seeing Jasper?"

In exasperation, Peridot threw her arms over her head and waved them, "A million times! She won't listen to me!" All Peridot wanted to do right now was help Lapis. Lapis didn't even seem fazed by the way her relationship was, and Peridot wasn't sure if she genuinely thought it was normal, or if she had grown numb to it, or if she was just pretending, or... What. But Lapis would brush her off every time she tried to convince Lapis that she and Jasper were bad news. Peridot was especially scared after Lapis informed her the abuse between them was physical sometimes. It was bad enough they fought verbally and Jasper cheated on her, but... Fuck. Peridot didn't know what to do, so she went to the one person she knew could help her when it came to relationships: Garnet. She told Garnet everything Lapis told her, told Garnet how scary Jasper seemed, told Garnet how worried she was for her friend. 

Nodding, Garnet folded her arms and rested them on the tabletop of the table they sat in at Fish Stew Pizza. "So, the abuse is mutual?" Peridot said yes, and Garnet nodded again. Talking never was Garnet's forte. "Lapis doesn't think anything of it, you say?"

"Well, yes, she said it doesn't matter to her, but," Peridot fiddled insisting with the straw in her Mountain Dew, "I'm sure she doesn't really feel that way. She said she thinks she loves Jasper, maybe both of them don't want to risk ending the relationship if they both think they love each other? People do stupid things for love, sometimes." 

"It's possible." 

"What do I do, Garnet?" Peridot whined, dropping her face onto the table. "Really, all you can do is keep talking to her about it, keep trying to convince her to see the reality of things. Other than that, there isn't much else you can do. Unless she's willing to have your help, you can't really help her." 

Maybe that would be good advice if Lapis wasn't the most stubborn person in the world. "Are you sure that's all I can do?" 

"Mhmm." Garnet nodded as she took a sip of her Coke, "From what I've heard, she definitely trusts you, Peridot. She'll listen to you, eventually." 

That didn't help much.


	10. Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peridot finds out about something, and Lapis meets the Gems.

Steven had school off for some teacher conference day thing, so he came over to hang out with Peridot for the day. They'd played about twelve rounds of Super Smash Bros 4 and six Grand Prix's of Mario Kart 8 on Peridot's Wii U, then Steven said he was going to go use the bathroom. While waiting for his return, Peridot had opened her Facebook up to find Lapis had sent her a friend request. When she saw it, a smile spread on her face and she immediately accepted. Then, she clicked on Lapis's profile, and started looking through it. Eventually she had found Jasper's account, and, it just happened to not be private, so... She ended up stalking Jasper through the Internet, but in her defense it was out of worry for that freaking girl she had grown unbearably fond of.

Really, Jasper didn't post very often. With just a few scrolls, Peridot was already down to the posts from six months ago. She'd also took notice to the fact that Jasper never posted anything about her girlfriend. Peridot had scrolled down to when they must have first began dating, and there were several pictures of them and they both looked really, genuinely, happy. Then Jasper just stopped posting about Lapis all together, and... That stumped Peridot. She assumed that must be around the point where their relationship started to fall apart. From then until now Jasper's account was full of terrible selfies of herself in front of the mirror showing off her abs and holding her phone in front of her entire face like a twelve year old white boy and memes. If Peridot didn't have such distaste towards Jasper, she would have been laughing at her account. Instead she just felt irritated.

"What are you looking at?" The sudden voice made Peridot jump, eyes going wide and she dropped her phone on her lap as she raised a hand to her chest to calm her suddenly fast paced heart. She relaxed as she realized it was only Steven. God, she hadn't even heard the boy get done with the bathroom. Thank god he wasn't an axe murderer.

Although she didn't know how to explain to him what she was doing. 

Her phone had conveniently landed with the screen facing up, so Steven immediately saw a picture of the buff woman on Peridot's phone. Steven's smile was replaced with a frown as he looked at her, and he grabbed his arm with his hand and held it uncomfortably, "You know her?" He asked.

Quirking an eyebrow, Peridot said yes. Then, "Do... You know her?" She really hoped that Steven didn't know Jasper. No one should have to deal with that monster of a woman. Steven awkwardly shrugged with a single shoulder, "Well, sorta. I know her daughter, when me and Connie were like six or eight she picked on us for a long time." At the mention of Connie getting bullied by the girl, Steven's eyebrows furrowed and his eyes looked more mad than anything. "It was just really mean."

"Wait," Peridot snapped, "Did you just say 'her daughter'?" There was no fucking way. There was no way. Steven did not just say that, no. Seemingly equally confused, Steven answered her with an affirmative. "Yeah, her name is Malachite... I kinda feel bad for her, you know... Like, she's mean and stuff but I think she's just pretty lonely. I tried to be her friend, but she went off on me..." 

Peridot was not listening to Steven's spiel. "Do you know anything else about their family?" Family. If that family included Lapis, that word was definitely wrong. "Uhh..." Steven, confused by Peridot's sudden slight anger and curiosity, appeared to be digging around in his brain for answers. "Oh! They live in Ocean Town," She knew that. "I don't think Malachite's, like, actual real dad is around," Hm. "I think her mom has a girlfriend or something? So she kinda has two moms." Aha! There it was!

"Can Greg or someone come get you Steven?" Peridot loved Steven, a lot, he was pretty much her little brother at this point, but shit, right now she and Lapis had some stuff to discuss. "I can call... Um... I think Pearl's off work today!" Steven suggested, bringing out his phone and holding it up and waiting as if asking permission. Peridot nodded, "Go on." He tapped on his phone before raising it to his ear.

—

Though Pearl seemed curious as to why Peridot seemed to eager to get Steven away, she didn't question it. Which, Peridot found relieving. She just wanted to get the two of them away so she could talk to Lapis. After a minute of Peridot trying to low-key kick the two of them out, Pearl and Steven said their goodbyes to Peridot, Pearl took Steven's hand and walked him and herself out of Peridot's business.

Then, Peridot threw herself onto her couch and grabbed her phone. 

Peridot: Lapis I need to talk to you.

Lapis responded after only a moment.

Lapis: what's up 

Fingers hovering over the keyboard, Peridot tried to think of how to best say what she needed to say. 'So hey my friend told me your girlfriend has a daughter is this why you haven't left her' didn't seem like a very good response. She went with the literal most simple thing to say.

Peridot: Malachite?

The text showed it was read by Lapis, but the three dots that informed Peridot Lapis was typing didn't show up. "Come on, you asshole." Peridot shook her phone and talked to it like Lapis would hear her through telepathy or something. It took a full five minutes for the dots to show up on the screen and another three minutes for the response to show up.

Lapis: how do you know about malachite

Lapis: what the hell peridot green

Peridot: My friend knows her and her mother who happens to be your girlfriend.

Lapis: dude it's not a big deal

Peridot: When you were telling me about your relationship with Jasper it didn't occur to you to mention this? Your relationship is bad as it is without the addition of a child who is probably being affected by it.

Lapis: look MOM me and jasper are fine and we don't fight around her i stg she's ok

Peridot: Lapis.

Lapis: drop it 

—

Peridot hadn't heard from Lapis since she had brought up Malachite, and it had been about a week since then. She was worried, of course, but there wasn't much she could do about it. She tried to get her mind off of the blue-haired girl as best as she could, but Lapis Lazuli was very hard to not think about. Thankfully, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl did make good company and were very good at distracting her from Lapis. 

"Peridot, holy shit!" Amethyst's voice snapped Peridot's attention from her thoughts, and back to her T.V. screen where the four of them were playing Mario. Apparently, Amethyst had just gotten killed because Peridot had zoned out and threw her off the land. "Get it together, girl, this is life or death!" The short, messy-haired girl proceeded to yell, to which Pearl cringed, "Amethyst, it's Mario, calm down."

At this comment, Amethyst picked up Pearl and threw her straight into a Bullet Bill's path, thus making her lose her fire power. "Amethyst! How could you?!" Pearl squawked loudly, clearly offended, as she almost fell off of Garnet and onto the floor (Peridot's couch was cramped for the four of them, Pearl or Amethyst always ended up sitting on Garnet's lap). "Just a game, huh?" Garnet asked, chuckling. This caused Peridot and Amethyst both to laugh as Pearl's imaginary feathers fluffed up. 

Once everyone had calmed down and got their heads back in the game, Garnet spoke. "So," She said, shifting on the couch a little, "Peridot, have you had any luck with your friend?" At this, both Amethyst and Pearl stared at Peridot a moment to pry, before snapping their eyes to the T.V. screen to pay attention. Tapping the buttons on her controller s little roughly, Peridot made a grunting noise, "Not really."

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"Not really." Peridot had invited the three women over to distract her from Lapis, not so she could cry about Lapis. "Alright then— Amethyst, get that box—" Amethyst then got an ice flower. "We've been meaning to ask if you'd like to go to Keystone with us, starting tomorrow. You, frankly, hardly leave your house." Garnet said this like she would be pointing a finger at Peridot in accusation if she wasn't holding a controller to play this very important game of Mario. 

Furrowing her eyebrows, Peridot asked, "Why are you guys going to Keystone?"

"Pearl's ballet, but that whole deal only lasts like, a day, so we're just gonna hang out in Keystone for a few days after that," Amethyst informed, before swearing loudly as she got bit by a piranha plant in Mario. "Y'know, get outta Beach City for a little bit. 'N you seem like someone who needs a vacation, like, twenty four seven, girlfriend." 

Before Peridot could contemplate this offer, a knock sounded at her door. "Uh, one sec." Peridot said, pausing their game much to her three guests dismay. "Are you expecting anybody?" Asked, Pearl as she set her controller to the side for the time being and relaxed into Garnet's form, along with Amethyst. This was denied, "Not that I know of. Give me a moment," With this, Peridot stood and scurried to the door as the knock was heard again. She stood on her toes to look through the peephole, and— Blue hair.

She opened the door quickly. "Lapis?" Her voice cracked and she smiled in her excitement to see her friend who she figured hated her now for whatever reason. 

"Hey..." Lapis muttered, her usual voice that held hints of teasing and sarcasm and all else in it was currently sounding rather void of emotion. Her blue eyes were fixed on her white and blue striped flip flops, and her hands were shoved into the pockets of her black jean shorts. She had an air that made Peridot worry. "Come in— Some of my friends are here, by the w—" Lapis pushed past her, and Peridot blinked, gathering herself, before shutting the door behind them. She saw her three friends looking over at Lapis and her in interest. "Are you okay...?" She asked Lapis, who simply muttered in response and grabbed her hand, squeezing it a little hard, "Just peachy." 

There was an moment of silence, before Peridot led Lapis over to the three women piled on the couch to introduce everyone. "Guys, this is Lapis." Even through Garnet's darkly tinted glasses Peridot could tell the look Garnet gave showed she already knew who Lapis was, from Peridot's tales, but it didn't seem anyone else took notice. "Lapis, this is Garnet," Garnet lifted a hand in a short wave, "Amethyst," Amethyst grinned and said a drawled out 'hey', "And Pearl." Pearl shifted just so that she could hold a hand out to Lapis. Pearl was formal like that. 

Seeming a little confused, Lapis let go of Peridot and took Pearl's offered hand, shaking it, then dropped her hand to her side. 

"We're going to go get something for us all to eat, aren't we?" Garnet said, hinting to her two girlfriends that they needed to give Peridot and Lapis some space for a moment. "Wh—" Pearl began, but Amethyst lightly elbowed her and Pearl's mouth formed an 'o' in realization, "Oh— Yes! We were just about to do that!" 

"Oh my god, P, just come on," Amethyst practically dragged Pearl off the couch and into the kitchen with Garnet in pursuit. This entire display made Peridot want to shove her head through her wall. But she recovered, and sat down on the couch, motioning for her Hawaiian friend to sit next to her. Lapis hesitated, but then followed, to Peridot's relief. 

Chewing her bottom lip, Peridot watched Lapis closely. "What's wrong, Lapis? I'm... I'm sorry if I upset you, I just... Really do care about you." The words were true, and though it was sentimental and mushy and Peridot hated to admit such a thing to anyone, right now she didn't even care that she said it or that she knew Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were eavesdropping. "It's fine, Peri." Lapis said, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. "Would you mind if I stayed with you for a couple of days...?" As Peridot opened her mouth to question this, Lapis snapped, "Look, Jasper and I had a fight, but if you try to say anything about it, I'm going to shove a surfboard up your ass."

Peridot really didn't want a surfboard up her ass at the moment, so...

She could always pry later, when Lapis wasn't pissed or... Whatever the hell she was right now. Peridot really could not tell. 

So, instead of arguing, she said, "Yeah, of course you can. Just, one sec, I gotta tell those three," she nodded towards the kitchen, "That I can't go to Keystone with them." 

As if reading Peridot's mind (or as if she were simply listening in the whole time) Garnet emerged from the kitchen. "Lapis, you are welcome to join us, if you would like." This, Peridot hadn't been expecting, but... It did sound nice to bring along Lapis, and they could all have a good time together, probably. Peridot looked at Lapis with eyes that were about as pleading and adorable as Puss in Boots's. "No pressure, of course," Pearl added, she and Amethyst coming from the kitchen holding two plates of cheese and crackers they had stolen from Peridot's food supply. "But we would be happy to have you." 

Lapis was silent for a second, before glancing at Peridot and saying, "Can I think about it?" 

Garnet nodded as they joined Peridot and Lapis on the couch. 

—

To Peridot's content, Lapis had slowly become more and more like herself over the next few hours. The swimmer became pretty good friends with the three women fairly quickly; Lapis and Amethyst both joked with each other, Pearl and Lapis both had some interests in common, and even Garnet seemed to be a lot friendlier and less stoic than usual in order to show Lapis she was welcome in the group. It made Peridot oddly happy that her friends were getting along so well, and that Lapis was definitely a lot happier now than when she first showed up.

"It's getting late," Pearl commented, when Amethyst started yawning like a tired lion, "We should get out of your hair." Peridot wanted to tell them they could stay, because really, she was having such a good time, but these three had a life, so... "Okay,"

"And Lapis, have you decided if you'd like to join us?" Garnet asked. Lapis smiled in appreciation (it was very cute, Peridot wanted to take a million pictures) and answered, "If you really don't mind me coming, sure." 

Grinning widely and whooping, Amethyst pumped a fist in the air, "Yeah, Lapis! It's a party now!" Chuckling lightly at this, Pearl added, "We'll see you both tomorrow afternoon then." 

They all said their goodbyes, and the three girlfriends left Peridot's apartment. Not five minutes later did Peridot hear the familiar sound of their Supremo driving away. The two women listened to the sound until it faded into the distance. Peridot picked up her X-Box controller so she could find a movie for them to watch, but was stopped when she heard Lapis sniffle. She looked over at Lapis, and found Lapis had a hand covering her eyes and tears were streaming down her cheeks without end, staining her tanned, freckled skin. "Lapis...?" Peridot set her fingertips on Lapis' shoulder to get her attention, "What's wrong?" 

Instead of answering, Lapis buried her face into Peridot's shoulder and held her tightly, still crying, the sounds she'd make every once in a while muffled by Peridot's green hoodie. "It's— it's okay, Lapis..." Peridot stuttered a little shakily to her friend; she never was good with comforting people, and she didn't even know the exact reason why Lapis was crying (though it almost undeniably linked to Jasper). She tried to remember what Garnet had told her once to help calm her down and get herself out of her own head. 

"Take a moment, remind yourself to take a moment and find yourself," Peridot whispered to Lapis, "take a moment and ask yourself if this is how you fall apart... But it's not. You're okay. You've got nothing to fear, I'm here." After a few more minutes, Lapis had stopped crying, and she turned her head so her face was no longer buried but she still used Peridot as a pillow. "Sorry," she said, and Peridot shook her head, "Don't be sorry. Will you talk to me? Please?" 

"In the morning." Lapis promised, hugging Peridot to her, "I'm okay."


	11. Unfair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I swear this chapter was supposed to not be sad at all but it ended up being sad because I've been sad for like a week and I was tired so sht   
> I might edit or rewrite this when I'm not fucked up ok but for now (at least) have this garbage   
> Sorry peri u were gonna get sad at some point

Peridot awoke to loud, loud, LOUD knocking on her door, followed by Pearl practically screaming "Have some manners, Amethyst!", and a noise that sounded like Amethyst had laughed, or was mocking Pearl, or something. Peridot wasn't really sure. But it woke her up. Her glasses were crooked on her face, she fixed that, then looked at Lapis, cuddled against her, and her breath stopped for a moment. Peridot really could watch Lapis forever, but the knock sounded again, and she gently moved away from Lapis and to the door. 

It was opened, and Amethyst's incoming knock landed on Peridot's forehead. "Hey!" She yelped, hand flying to her forehead. The fist hurt, okay? Amethyst had been pounding down the door, after all. "Heh, sorry, dude." Amethyst said, but judging by her insistent giggles, Peridot was sure she wasn't really all that sorry. "Are you and Lapis ready to go?" Amethyst asked after recovering.

A no. "You just woke me up, actually, and Lapis is still sleeping. Come in." Peridot stepped aside, allowed the three in her home, then shut the door. After doing that, Peridot rushed to Lapis' side and shook her shoulder, "Lapis, wake up. Garnet, Ame, and Pearl are here." With a few more shakes, the grumpy blue-haired girl woke up with a groan and pushed Peridot away. She sat up and stared at the four of them like she hated all of them for disturbing her sleep.

Brightening now that Lapis was up, Pearl held up a bag and to Lapis said, "You didn't come with anything, so I brought you some of my clothes— You and I are the closest to each other's size, after all."

This kindness made Lapis soften a little, and she shrugged, stood up and took the bag. "Thanks, Pearl," She said, and Pearl smiled brightly, content Lapis was pleased with it. 

"And you, Peridot? Have you gotten packed?" Garnet asked. Peridot nodded, "I woke up for like, five minutes this morning to do it."

"Yeah, boy!" Amethyst whooped, "We ready ta go?"

—

After Lapis had changed into some of Pearl's clothes, the five of them piled into the car. Pearl was driving, Garnet had shotgun, Amethyst, Peridot, and Lapis were all in the back seats with Peridot in the middle. Peridot didn't mind being so close to Lapis-- or Amethyst, of course, but... She really, really didn't mind being so close to Lapis. Lapis had her hand on Peridot's thigh and either it was really hot in that car or Peridot was burning up.

"How far even is Keystone?" Peridot asked. She'd never been to Keystone before; she'd only spent a lot of time in Beach City and Empire City, and anywhere else she had been was long forgotten. "Few hours. We'll make a gas stop somewhere between now and then." Pearl informed, and Peridot groaned. "Shiiiit. I hate being in cars."

"Why?" Lapis prodded.

Shrugging, Peridot looked at her, "Let's see... These assholes," she motioned to Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet, "Made me crash into a cornfield before we were friends, for one thing." 

At this, Lapis laughed, "What?"

"In our defense, Peridot was an even bigger asshole back then." Said Amethyst, sticking her tongue out at Peridot. "She tried to kill Steven."

"For the last time, Amethyst, beating Steven at Whack-a-Mole does not qualify as attempted murder." 

"If you whack him on the head with it it does and you definitely tried that." 

"You tied me up with a rope while Pearl tried to hot wire my car, thank you very much. ANYWAY," Peridot death-glared Amethyst. "I hate cars. And you, Ame." Amethyst made an exaggerated kissing face at her, "Aww, love you too, Per-Bear!" Planting her face into her hand, Peridot grumbled to herself as Lapis joined in, only a little more seriously, "I agree with that, 'Per-Bear'," And she planted her lips on Peridot's cheek for a brief moment before putting her hand on Peridot's shoulder and smirking. "Garnet, Amethyst, they're being hella gay back here, please help me." 

Solemnly, Garnet shook her head as she stopped at a stoplight, "Can't save you from that. Pearl and I are being hella gay up here, too." On cue, Pearl leaned across the dash and she and Garnet kissed each other for a few good seconds before Pearl retreated back into her seat, and Amethyst threw her hands in the air, almost hitting the car's roof. "Well now I'm the lonely one, you assholes!" 

Peridot rolled her eyes at her friends, before turning attention to Lapis. Lowering her voice, she asked timidly, "About last night... Will you talk about it to me today?"

Lapis chuckled a little, "You're really nice, Per, y'know that? It's gross."

"I agree."

"Assper and I fought, worse than usual, and I'd rather not go into detail." Lapis told her, and Peridot found herself grabbing Lapis' hand and squeezing it in support, "I'm with you and these dudes right now so I'm really okay, okay?"

Chewing her lip, Peridot shook her head a little, "You keep saying that but you're really not, Lapis..."

"Not right now, please." Lapis said, referring to the fact they shouldn't be discussing this with Garnet, amethyst and Pearl in the same place, even though those three were distracted. 

Peridot was silent for a moment, before saying, "I'm going to take a nap." 

—

They got to Keystone Motel after a long, long time. 

In the motel room, there were two beds, so the three girlfriends were sharing one and Lapis and Peridot were sharing the other. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl weren't settled for the night, they had all went to enjoy the pool despite it being nighttime and the water was probably cold. Lapis and Peridot lay next to each other, flipping through terrible T.V. channels.

"I really like you," Lapis said suddenly, when Peridot was beginning to drift to sleep. When Peridot didn't respond, Lapis continued, "I dunno. You're really great, Peridot." Then why are you with Jasper? was the first thought that came to Peridot's mind. The following thoughts were invaded with her feelings of Lapis. 

"You too," Peridot answered. Simple. Plain. It didn't give away how much Peridot really did like Lapis. If Lapis was bothered by the response she didn't show it. 

Lapis kissed her, on the lips, again. Unlike at the lighthouse, where the kiss was hurtful and sudden, now it was gentle and caring and Peridot was sure if she hated it or loved it. Of course she loved it because... Lapis kissed her. Lapis was amazing, and she was basically a walking trash can in a hoodie. But she hated it, too, because she wasn't anything important to Lapis, and she knew that well. She was just there for Lapis' revenge on Jasper. 

Peridot, despite most of her screaming that she shouldn't let Lapis kiss her when it was only to get some sort of little victory over Jasper, kissed Lapis back. She hadn't kissed a lot of people; one, maybe two or three. Not many at all, and certainly no one she really liked like she did Lapis. She was probably messy with it, but she didn't really care. Her heart fluttered because of this beautiful girl's lips on her own, her brain was fuzzy from the thoughts of how this girl could be kissing someone like her, her stomach hurting because Lapis couldn't possibly really like her, not when it was all to get back at Jasper. 

She really loved Lapis, and that fact was horrible no matter how nice it seemed to have little moments with Lapis like this. They couldn't be real. 

Lapis was practically on top of Peridot at this point, kissing her breathless, and Peridot loved it, loved Lapis, and was becoming more and more uncaring of her thoughts giving her such anxiety. After another minute they broke apart for air, and Peridot was brought back to reality and she mumbled, "Lapis, you can't seriously think you love Jasper? And... And I'm not saying that because I want you, I'm saying it because Jasper treats you very badly and you're acting out. The... The very least you could do is not lead me on if you're just using me because Jasper cheats on you." 

Lapis shook her head, rolling off of Peridot and next to her. "I really do like you, Peri. Just..." 

Silence.

Peridot let Lapis kiss her again. It was strange how something she had wanted so badly was so unfair to her.


	12. Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi !!!! I'm so so sorry for the long wait I have a myriad of excuses but I'll save you the trouble. Hope you enjoy our gays <3

“Hey, Peri.”

Peridot woke up to see Amethyst’s face merely an inch from her own, kneeling next to the bed with a grin on her face. A massive grin, in fact, and Peridot grumbled, already concerned for her own sanity, “What do you want?” And the girl pointed behind Peridot, and whispered, “Pretty cute thing ya got going’ on.” Not knowing what she was talking about, Peridot was about to question her, but then it hit her that Lapis’s arms were wrapped around her waist, and the Hawaiian girl was cuddled up against her. Peridot’s face immediately got hot with this realization, and Amethyst started laughing loudly. From the other side of the room, Pearl scolded, “Leave her alone, Amethyst!”

As if on cue, Garnet strolled in the motel room from outside, stretched her muscular arms above her head, and added her input on the topic, “It is pretty cute, though.” She gave a double thumbs up, and Peridot groaned loudly. These three women were the most embarrassing people on the planet Earth. Lapis shifted next to her, evidently woken up, and she pulled herself away from Peridot as she yawned and sat up. Quickly, Peridot scrambled to sit up to, having been freed from Lapis’s hold…Which happened to have been warm, and pretty nice, and.. Anyways. It’s not like she was enjoying it or anything.

“What’s up?” Lapis asked, voice and actions drowsy and lazy, as she realized everyone’s focus was on her. Coughing a little, Peridot quickly answered with, “Nothing. Good morning.” And glared daggers straight into Amethyst’s soul in hopes she would not say anything to Lapis. 

“Yes, good morning,” Pearl followed up, distracted, and kept on talking, “Lapis, Peri, why don’t you both spend some time in the pool? The water should be warm by now.” Peridot glanced at the clock. 12:23 P.M. Damn, Peridot thought to herself. She never slept that long. Lapis really must have been comfy… “We’ll join you in a little while.” Pearl finished, and Peridot watched Amethyst wiggle her eyebrows at her, “Yeah, go have funnn!”

They were trying to set her and Lapis up, weren’t they? Peridot huffed, “I don’t see why—“

Amethyst argued, “Or, you can stay in here and listen to us three bang.” 

“Amethyst!” Pearl squawked, while Garnet shrugged like she wasn’t exactly wrong.

“Uh…” Now convinced, Peridot looked at Lapis with a strained smile, “Shall we?” She did not want to be in the same room as Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl while they did anything remotely sexual and she didn’t plan on that changing anytime… Ever. Rolling her dark, blue eyes, Lapis slid off the bed and stretched her back out, nodding at Peridot. “‘Kay.” She gave a thumbs up to Pearl, and said in the most serious voice Peridot was sure she wasn’t joking, “Get some, Pearl.”

The motel had one, teeny, little, freezing bathroom, and Peridot huddled her swim suit to her chest as she retreated in there to change. Lapis was changing right in the middle of the motel room, unfazed, which was something Peridot didn’t get about anybody. She couldn’t stand changing in front of people, it made her anxious and it was uncomfortable for her, and… She didn’t get how a lot of people didn’t care about privacy. Whatever.

Peridot got her swim suit on, a dark green bikini, and black swim shorts on, too. Another thing: She hated just wearing bikini bottoms. She was shivering in the small bathroom, and she exited quickly, adjusting her glasses. Lapis was wearing a blue one-piece, the blue not nearly as dark as the shade in her hair, but a much softer shade. 

Amethyst whistled at Peridot when she stepped out, and Peridot found her face flushing red, and she muttered, “Come on, Lapis,” And rushed out of the motel room before Amethyst could possibly embarrass her further, Lapis at her heel. The pool wasn’t all that big, but the three women who had accompanied Lapis and Peridot on the trip had mentioned last night that the water was warm and they had a good time. 

“Peri, hurry up,” Lapis grinned at her, before she ran to the pool and jumped straight into the water. “Uh, I’m coming,” Peridot stuttered, making her way much slower and she used the stairs like a normal person. The water sent a chill through her spine, but after a moment, it wasn’t too bad. When Peridot looked at Lapis, Lapis was on her back on top of the water, the sun was hitting her tan, freckled skin and she had a small smile on her face. She looked content, and relaxed, and it made Peridot smile for no apparent reason other than— 

‘Oh yeah, you actually care about her, idiot’ Peridot thought to herself. Gross.

“I love the water,” Lapis said, as she stopped floating on her back and waded over to Peridot, who was nodding that she knew Lapis loved the water. Of course she knew that. Then, Peridot froze as Lapis draped her arms around Peridot’s neck, and asked, “Can we forget about everything and it just be you and me for a while?” She was talking about Jasper, Peridot knew. It might be for the best, Peridot thought, for just some days of relaxing instead of thinking about her anxieties like last night, and them constantly arguing over Jasper. They both needed a break. They both needed— “You and me,” Peridot repeated, giving a short, stiff nod, still not used to this girl being ‘with’ her, “Yes. Okay. I can do that.”

Not waiting a second, Lapis was cupping Peridot’s face in her hands, brushing her cheekbone softly with her thumb. Peridot swallowed, unable to still her beating heart. Lapis kissed her, slow and soft yet somehow powerful all at once. Peridot found her hands set on Lapis’s hips, pressing into the kiss and into her, Lapis’s wet hair tickling her nose and forehead. Her chest hurt, she liked Lapis so much. She couldn’t even think about how they were in public, and anyone could see them at any time— She just thought about how lovely Lapis was. 

Lapis’s hands moved to Peridot’s face, and her hold on Peridot’s cheeks tightened just so as she kissed her a little more roughly, teeth biting at her bottom lip and tongue prodding, and oh— Peridot thought she would melt. “Lapis,” She said, voice breathy, as Lapis pulled away to give her room to breathe. It crossed her mind, once or twice, that Lapis was probably a lot better at controlling her breathing than Peridot was, being a swimmer and all, and… The thought was— anyway. “My dumbass friends are probably watching us,” Peridot stammered out. 

Eyes darting towards the room’s windows, Lapis snorted and smiled at Peridot’s concerns, “Blinds are drawn, door’s closed.” She informed, hands dropping to Peridot’s waist. She dragged her lips down Peridot’s chin, to her neck, and Peridot couldn’t help but shiver. “Besides, who cares, Peri?” She asked, planting a few kisses on Peridot’s collarbone. Bathing suits were a lot more easy-access than her usual baggy hoodies and jeans, Peridot supposed with a bit of embarrassment, and she argued, “Well, I for one think it would be odd for my friends to see us, um…” How was she so awkward? 

She could feel Lapis’s smile against her skin, “You’re cute.” She kissed her neck again, this time nipping it just slightly and Peridot barely kept herself from jumping like an idiot. “Don’t think about them,” Lapis told her, “You and me, remember?”

“Right,” Peridot gave a brief, awkward nod, and wanted to physically punch herself in the face for being such a stupid mess around Lapis, who was like, the prettiest girl she knew. Smiling still, Lapis pulled her face away from Peridot’s neck and instead came face-to-face with her. Her lips ghosted over Peridot’s for a moment, Peridot shut her eyes and waited for her to kiss her, but then… Lapis was just gone, without finishing that teased kiss, and Peridot opened her eyes with annoyance. Lapis was simply backstroking away with a dumb grin on her face like they hadn’t been having a moment, and Peridot huffed. “Rude,” Peridot scolded.

Lapis didn’t even look at her, she only faced towards the sky with her eyes closed and the slightest of smiles on her lips. “Oh, were you enjoying that?”

Peridot could only make a sound of disbelief.

And, in the most teasing way, Lapis told her, “Come get me, if that’s what you want.”

It occurred to Peridot that Lapis was backstroking away farther and farther, and she huffed on reflex. “I don’t…” She stammered, folding her arms and digging her heel into the cool, slick bottom of the pool. The pool got deeper where Lapis was— Way deeper. Peridot was 5’2 on a good day. That water was 6-9 feet, and Peridot couldn’t stand out there. “I don’t swim, Lapis.”

A loud, wet raspberry came from the swimmer’s lips. 

“I can’t, Lapis,” Peridot found herself near whining. She just never learned how to swim. She tried, and decided it was useless. You don’t need swimming in order to do a math problem, or built a robot, or binge-watch every season of Camp Pining Hearts, right? But, uh, now she kind of had a ‘friend’ who’s main thing was swimming, so she was starting to regret not taking those classes. She really wanted another kiss.

To her relief, Lapis was swimming back her way when she heard that news. The expression on her face was a little terrifying, Peridot thought, and a lump formed in her throat as Lapis stood in front of her again. “You can’t swim?” She repeated, and Peridot nodded quickly, trying to stand a little taller. Lapis’s hands found her waist, and Peridot started to relax, but— 

The next thing she knew, Lapis was dragging her into the deep end, and Peridot let out a frightened squeak, clamping her eyes and mouth shut. Prepared for the taste and sting of chlorine to take over her senses, Peridot’s mind was just a bundle of a bunch of curse words, and oh, she was going to kill Lapis, but, after a moment of panic she realized she never went under.

Cautiously, she opened her eyes. Lapis was keeping her afloat, her arms wrapped around Peridot’s waist, and somehow Peridot’s legs had ended up around Lapis’s waist. Lapis and her were just wading in the water, a small, undetectable smile on Lapis’s face. Satisfied, the smile was. “You— You asshole,” Peridot gasped, and Lapis shook her head, happy with herself, “Uh, keep in mind who could drop you in the water right now.” 

Good point. Peridot shut her mouth.

Lapis kissed her, softly, reassuringly, teasingly, and Peridot felt the frown melt away. It wasn’t fair— This girl made her feel like a giggly dork. She was supposed to be, like, threatening! But instead she acted like a cute nerd around Lapis. 

Lapis removed one of her hands, and Peridot instantly held on tighter to the girl, a squeaky ‘don’t drop me!’ escaping from her tight lips. “Relax, dude,” Lapis said, and with her free hand, pushed Peridot’s blonde hair, stringy and matted from the water, out of her face. “You’re cute.” She said, and Peridot huffed. She really liked Lapis, and she really liked it just being them. No one else. 

“You really never learned to swim?” Lapis asked, briefly kissing Peridot again, “Not even doggy paddle?”

Feeling her face somehow heat up even more, Peridot retaliated, “Can you program a robot?”

“Well…”

“You have your things, I have mine.” Peridot said, and Lapis shrugged, and opposed, “Sure, but what if, like, you got in a boat accident. What skills gonna help?”

“I don’t do boats, either, so not an issue. Titanic is not my thing.”

Lapis giggle-snorted (God, Peridot wasn’t sure if she’d ever stop being so cute). “Yeah, okay.” 

“Are you going to take me back to where I can actually touch the bottom, or,” Peridot huffed, though admittedly she wasn’t as opposed to this as she was trying to act. Lapis was pretty much carrying her, and holding her, and kissing her— and as much as Peridot wished she wasn’t enjoying it so, she was. 

Humming a little, Lapis shook her head. “Not right now.”

— 

The second Peridot stepped out of the water, the wind hit her with it’s icy bite and she shivered, bad. Lapis came out of the pool right after her. Apparently noticing Peridot’s shaking, Lapis grabbed a towel she brought from the room and wrapped the fluffy, blue thing around Peridot’s shaking shoulders with a little grin, “Here, Peri.” 

After wrapping it tighter around herself, relieved from the little bit of warmth it provided, Peridot looked up at Lapis with question in her eyes. “Are you not cold?” 

A shrug. “Used to it.” Then, still with the slight grin on her lips, Lapis wrapped her arm around Peridot’s shoulders. She held her tightly, and Peridot couldn’t help but press into Lapis’s side further. She was actually really warm, and comfortable, and— Get it together, Peridot, she scolded herself.

Lapis was really, really perfect. Peridot hated to use ‘perfect’ to describe anyone or anything, but she honestly couldn’t put words together to properly describe her. Her skin was such a pretty color, and right now, in such sun, Peridot could see the dark and light freckles dotting Lapis’s shoulders and cheeks. Eyes a deep, beautiful blue and nails painted just the same color. And somehow her hair still looked beautiful even though she was soaking, and Peridot really couldn’t quite figure that out, since she had been pretty sure everyone looked like a mop when their hair was wet. Her smile was so small usually, but so beautiful and lovely, and her personality just seemed to make Peridot unexplainably happy. 

Peridot had it bad.

“You and me,” Lapis repeated her earlier words out of the blue, and Peridot couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face.


End file.
